Prioritize

//pɹaɪˈɒɹətaɪz// verb

verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To value, do, or choose something first, or before other things. transitive

    "When I don't have time to buy everything at the store, I prioritize fresh fruit and vegetables over foods like rice or noodles."

  2. 2
    assign a priority to wordnet
  3. 3
    To arrange or list a group of things in order of priority or importance. intransitive, transitive
  4. 4
    To rank something as having high priority. transitive

Synonyms

All synonyms
prioritise

Example

More examples

"When your resources are limited, you have to prioritize."

Etymology

From priority + -ize. First attested in 1967 as U.S. government jargon, becoming more widespread through the 1970s and ’80s, but still denounced as officialese by purists into the 1990s.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.